Home

The land gives Guy a reason to reflect

Will YeomanThe West Australian
Guy Sebastian.
Camera IconGuy Sebastian. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Guy Sebastian is performing intimate concerts at Uluru. And, as Will Yeoman finds, The Voice star says the Red Centre is making him look deep inside...

WILL YEOMAN: Perhaps we could start more generally by talking about your feelings for Australia, the Australian landscape, and the power of Uluru on our psyche?

GUY SEBASTIAN: Anything that has a scientific age of 550 million years, or, according to Australian Indigenous beliefs, has existed since the beginning of time will always provoke a deep cavernous sense of wonderment. Questions we bury and avoid asking ourselves until we are in a wide open space, a great expanse faced with only our own thoughts with a backdrop of an ancient landscape. Thoughts around our own mortality and the short time we have here is what always comes to mind for me. Questions like, how much can I add to this world in such a short space of time? Have I found my true purpose? Am I really living every day like they are numerically limited?

In my travels around the world I have asked these questions a lot. In many other parts of the world there is evidence of human settlement and achievement — old architectural beauties, statues, places of worship, burial sites, all invoke a sense of curiosity in me as to how the ones before us lived their daily lives.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

When you look past the effects of human civilisation and shift gaze towards nature’s evolution, it’s a whole new time conception ball game. As someone who has always been seeking spiritual knowledge, this sends my brain into a tailspin!

Yes, in Australia we don’t have castles as ancient as those we find in parts of England, or churches as old as the Vatican, but the landscape and the evidence left by the original people of this land tells a much longer, more beautiful, deep story of time.

For every person I know who has been to Uluru, there are two words that are always mentioned in their recount: spiritual and magical.

I’m sorry my answer sounded like something in a travel guide. I started and I couldn’t stop!

Uluru.
Camera IconUluru. Credit: Supplied

WILL: When you have a backdrop like Uluru, and you are singing outside under that big sky of stars, nature effectively becomes your theatre. Surely that must have a powerful effect on the way you approach a performance?

GUY: I welcome any visual enhancement to a show and the Uluru landscape is second to none. Who needs a screen with some computer-generated FX with that as a backdrop!!?

I’m already an emotional wreck when I’m on stage so I will be trying to keep it together as much as I can, while trying to avoid asking myself all of those life questions I mentioned above while signing!

WILL: T.R.U.T.H is arguably your most revealing album to date. But all music is autobiographical to a certain degree. We’d love to know about your connection with live audiences, and how difficult it’s been for performing artists such as yourself in recent times to lose aspects of that connection at various points. And what it’s like to really cut loose when you’re back up on stage and sharing that that moment together. ESPECIALLY in such an amazing venue!

GUY: I’ve just released my 7th single from this album. That’s a first for me. It has spoken to a lot of people but to be honest, I really needed to write this for myself too. The last few years have been a rollercoaster, not to mention a pandemic thrown into the mix of what was already a tricky time.

For me the pinnacle of everything I do creatively is touring. Being onstage is the tangible part which makes it all worthwhile. The energy in a room full of people connecting through music is what makes me tick. To be able to do this again after such a long forced break will be incredible for both me, and my band/team. In short, we are dying to be back onstage.

Aerial view of Uluru.
Camera IconAerial view of Uluru. Credit: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images, Getty

WILL: What can West Travel Club audiences expect to hear? A mix of new numbers and classic hits? Anything special in there (without giving too much away, just a hint please!)?

GUY: Nothing random! It will be the songs I’m best known for and maybe some special moments just for the West Travel Club audience!

WILL: The West Travel Club audience will experience Uluru, and quite a bit more of the Red Centre. We’re just wondering whether you will get time to experience some of it, too?

GUY: I’m not coming all the way to not get the full experience myself!

WILL: What's been your most memorable performance to date?

GUY: It’s so hard to pick one. Singing on David Letterman as Battle Scars went platinum in the US was a bucket-list moment. Eurovision was the most fun gig. Firefight was special too, mainly because of the unity I felt in that stadium.

WILL: Where in the world would you most like to perform? (Keep in mind just about anything is possible — events in places like the Great Wall of China/under the Eiffel Tower.)

GUY: My boys recently went on their first ski trip. They are now obsessed. We are dreaming about a ski trip in somewhere like Japan or Austria and I would love to perform surrounded by snowy mountains (indoors, of course). I’ve hiked through the Alps on a solo photography trip and I’m desperate to be in that landscape again. I grew up in Adelaide and all we had was Mt Thebarton which was an indoor ice arena. WILL: Where has been the most memorable place you have travelled?

GUY: I love the Netherlands. Obviously Amsterdam has a reputation for being a fun city to party in but it represents something else for me too. My music has taken me to many places. A song I wrote called Before I Go really connected with people there. It was a time where I was at a bit of a low and the confidence it gave me is still with me.

WILL: Anything else you’d like to add? For example, any international travel plans once we’re able to move about more freely? Anything you really miss?

GUY: Definitely that ski trip and a golf trip to New Zealand. I’m golf mad.

Kata Tjuta.
Camera IconKata Tjuta. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

These Travel Club Tours, in partnership with Imagine Holidays, are offered in three different packages ...

Silver

The Silver package is the Guy Sebastian Intimate Uluru Concert.

It departs on May 28 for four nights and includes hotel stays in both Yulara, near Uluru, and Alice Springs. All flights are direct.

There’s one four-star night in Alice Springs at the Doubletree by Hilton (or similar), and three nights at the four-star the Desert Gardens Hotel near Uluru.

There’s a fully escorted tour and Uluru sunrise base tour.

The package is $3699 per person twin share, and includes Silver seat tickets at an exclusive Guy Sebastian event, with Guy supported by Gary Pinto.

Gold

The five-night Gold package is called Guy Sebastian Intimate Uluru Concert & Alice Springs Adventure.

For, in addition to Gold seat tickets to an exclusive Guy Sebastian event and dinner under the stars at the Sounds of Silence, it includes hotel stays in Yulara, near Uluru, and Alice Springs.

There are three nights at the four-star hotel Desert Gardens Hotel in Uluru and two at the four-star Crowne Plaza Alice Springs. All hotel stays include breakfast.

All flights are direct.

The Gold package departs on May 30 and is from $4299 per person twin share.

It also includes fully escorted tours — an Uluru sunrise base tour, an Alice Springs town tour and a tour of West MacDonnell Range.

Platinum

This is the Guy Sebastian Intimate Uluru Concert and Scenic Helicopter Flight package.

For, in addition to three nights at the five-star hotel stay at the Sails in the Desert Hotel in Uluru and one at the four-star hotel Crowne Plaza Alice Springs (with breakfast each day), there is a scenic helicopter flight over Uluru.

And, of course, there are Platinum seat tickets to an exclusive Guy Sebastian event.

There is also a Sounds of Silence gala dinner including wines, beers and soft drinks at Uluru, and an Outback Dining Experience in Alice Springs.

There’s an Alice Springs town tour and Uluru sunrise tour and Kata Tjuta visit. It is from $4699 per person twin share.

Book

To book the Silver, Gold or Platinum Guy Sebastian Uluru experiences, phone 6319 0292. westtravelclub.com.au/events/guy

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails